


Outside of Beyond Beyond

by DWEmma



Category: The X-Files, The X-Files Origins Series - Various Authors
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 21:08:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20442551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DWEmma/pseuds/DWEmma
Summary: In Agent of Chaos by Kami Garcia, 17 year old Fox Mulder arrives at Beyond Beyond at 4:40 PM on April 2, 1979. In Devil's Advocate by Jonathan Maberry, 14 year old Dana Scully leaves Beyond Beyond at some point on April 2, 1979 before 2:19 PM and before 5:23 PM, when she's well into her jujutsu class at her Dojo. What if Mulder held back in the parking lot before walking in with Phoebe and and Gimble, and asked the young teenage girl just leaving a little about the shop before entering it?





	Outside of Beyond Beyond

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wendelah1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wendelah1/gifts).

Beyond Beyond. Craiger, Maryland 

April 2, 1979, 4:15 PM

Dana was both irritated and soothed that Corinda had known about her vision earlier that day. She liked that it implied that she really saw something, that she wasn't crazy, but Corinda couldn’t actually be a psychic, could she? Psychics didn’t exist. Though if psychic phenomena was fake, then what had she experienced earlier that day? She and Melissa had finished their beverages, and Corinda had offered Dana use of the unoccupied meditation room when she noted that Dana seemed to need to get her head into a better place. At first Dana had rejected the offer, since she knew that her 5:00 jujutsu class at Kakusareta Taiyou Dojo would help her clear her mind. But she reconsidered because meditating might get her in the right headspace, so she wouldn’t accidentally hurt herself or someone else in class. 

Dana was terrible at meditating, though. Melissa had taught her how to do it when she was 10, back in San Diego, and made it sound so easy. Just clear her head. But Dana’s mind didn’t clear so easily. It wasn’t just the horrible visions and embarrassments of earlier that day that was causing the problem, thought that certainly didn't help. It was one of the reasons she liked jujutsu for head clearing: she could focus her mind on her actions, which cleared away the cobwebs a lot better than nothingness could seem to. That was one of the reasons she liked her Catholic traditions so well. The mantra of saying her Hail Marys also helped her achieve calm better than the attempt to not think ever could. The best she had ever achieved was thinking the phrase “Don’t think,” over and over, and that didn’t calm her in the least. If anything, it made her more nervous. 

She thought maybe the calming location would bring about another vision, but no, her visions only came in sleep or when it was the most embarrassing moment it could be. Seriously, was she ever going to be able to make friends in this town if she kept being so weird? You’d think that after being a Navy brat for her whole life she’d be better at making new friends, but she just wasn’t Melissa. At least she enjoyed retreating into her own thoughts. 

Finally she looked at her watch and noticed it was 4:30 PM. She decided that she had tried to meditate for long enough. Class started in half an hour, and she could bike over and take her time putting on her gi and her new green belt. She got off the cushion and slipped on her shoes, and left Beyond Beyond by the side door, not seeing anyone on her way out. 

She was unlocking her bike from the shadow of the shop’s side when an unfamiliar car pulled into the lot with three teenagers in it. They looked about 17. Two boys and a girl. The girl was pretty in an unconventional way, one boy looked like that boy who runs the AV club at every school she’d ever been to, and another was all long limbs and awkwardness, with a nose his face still hadn’t grown into. They got out of the car in a way that looked to Dana they were unsure they were in the right place. They conferred for a moment, and then the AV club boy and the girl walked resolutely into the shop. The lanky boy held back for a moment, looking at the shop as if he was trying to figure something out. 

Dana finished unlocking her bike, slung her book bag on her shoulder, and was about to hop on her bike when the boy called out to her. 

“Hey,” he said, with a monotonous tone that suggested a question. 

“Um,” replied Dana, “Hi.” She was still at the stage of new town confusion where she often had to pretend she recognized a person before she figured out how she knew them. When you were the new girl, everyone learned you were the new girl, but there were hundreds of new faces for her to learn every time. 

“What do you know about this place?” he asked, jutting his head toward Beyond Beyond. 

“Oh,” she said, still unsure if she knew the boy or not. “Um, they’re a store? But also they have classes. Meditation, Yoga, Reiki, things like that. And crystals and other new age stuff.” 

“You believe in that kind of thing?” the boy asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Dana felt like she was being condescended to, but she also wasn’t sure how to answer. She believed in the exercise component of yoga, and she wanted to be able to meditate. As for reiki and crystals, she really wasn't sure. “I want to,” she said, but less as a proclamation, and more of an attempt to defend her presence at Beyond Beyond to this stranger looking at her with his for a justification of her existence. “There’s nothing about positive energy, peace, and advancement of the soul that anyone should be skeptical about,” she concluded. 

“What’s your name?” he asked. Now that she was talking to him, the nose seemed to shrink away and take up less of his face. There was something about the warmness of his eyes that almost changed how he looked to her. I mean, he was no Angelo, but for guys much too old for her, he was a lot nicer to look at than he seemed at first glance. He didn't go to her high school. She would have noticed him before. 

“Dana,” she said. “Do I know you? Do you live in Craiger?

“No I’m… well, I’m trying to figure out where I should be, but I don’t live here.” He smiled at her. “It’s nice to meet you, Dana.” 

“If you don’t believe in the things that Beyond Beyond does, why come from another town to come here?” Dana asked, narrowing her forehead at him. 

“Well, I’m trying to figure something out. Beyond Beyond might have the answers I’m looking for,” he said, trying to proclaim it in a way that made it sound less vague than it was. 

“Trying to figure out what you do believe or trying to make fun of people who already know what they think?” she asked, smirking at him. She knew that when she smirked she looked like someone’s bratty little sister, so she tried not to smirk, but there was something about this boy that made her want to get under his skin. 

But instead of being thrown, he smirked back at her and chuckled. “I’m looking for answers. People can believe what they want to believe, but there’s only one truth. I’m looking for it.” 

They looked at each other for a moment. At this point, she couldn’t even notice his nose if she tried. All she saw were his eyes. She thought of what Melissa had said earlier about how amazing Sunshine was, and the intellectual air he gave off. This boy was young and awkward, maybe the same age as Angelo, but seemed a lot younger. But when she looked into her eyes, she could see actual intelligence where Sunshine was probably just pretending. 

“Well,” Dana said, awkwardly pointing at her bike. “I hope you find the truth you’re looking for. I have to get to my Dojo.” 

The boy shrugged, and started toward the front door of Beyond Beyond. 

“Hey,” called Dana, over her shoulder as she was hopping on her bike. “What’s your name?” 

“Mu--” he began, but then paused for a second, just a second, as if he realized that he he hadn’t planned to answer that question. “Murray,” said the boy whose name was definitely not Murray. “It’s nice to meet you, Dana. I hope you find what you’re looking for as well.” 

FBI Headquarters. Washington D.C. 

March 6, 1992.

“Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI’s most unwanted,” Dana heard called out from the office she was told would be hers. Well not that she had been given an actual desk in it, but she was to work there. She took a deep breath. No point in hovering in the door. If she was going to prove herself to the FBI (and to her family, who still didn’t understand why she was doing this), she had to first walk through the door. She took a deep breath, and wished she had ever learned those meditation skills that had escaped her when she was fourteen. 

“Agent Mulder. I’m Dana Scully. I’ve been assigned to work with you,” she said, offering out her hand. At first, all she saw was the nose. But then she saw the eyes. They were slightly mocking, but also warm. And then all she could see were the eyes.


End file.
